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Strict Face: Brutally Efficient

So much of new music is performed by skinny, mopey Indie Hardliners, who – via the mediums of echo-laden guitar, charity-shop clothing, and underwhelmingly drab songs – have transformed the musical landscape into a flat, dull plane.

In this environment, it’s easy to forget that music can inhabit other worlds: of lushness, of joy, or of ultraviolence.

Which, of course, brings us to Strict Face, an Australian artist whose music was born in an entirely dark, metal room filled with toxic air, sharp objects and a sampler filled with angry snippets of noise.

Eski Clash is almost excoriatingly hard - this is a violent song, full of sounds designed to frighten: weapons cocking, deep and ragged bass dumps, drums that sound like gunshots.

Moreover, Eski Clash is pulverising in its insistence – it just keeps coming back for more, and we’re merely swept along in the gruesome wake. And it’s excellent.

If Strict Face is indicative of the route music is taking in the brave new post-Dubstep/Bro-step/Whatever-step world, it may be time to acknowledge that a new can of worms has been opened; except instead of worms, the can is full of punches to the face.